Will ye help me teach the Wee Spiders?

I've set up a separate site... and so far, it's vaccin time I don't have. But in this case, the "school-supplied" site is bloated, inefficient, and primarily designed for somebody's job security. So then what? Well, THEN we gotta show them how "language" can unlock the riddle!

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As I approached the small crowd gathered out front of the local theatre, my good friend Dave came toward me and said "so where the hell have you been? You missed a good show."

As I stood there looking for words to explain myself, I decided not to say what I was thinking. To just come straight out and say I thought the show more closely resembled a thorough brainwashing than an informational gathering would be all it would take to alienate myself from my friends and peers.

"You'd better not miss the next show or everybody's gonna think you're different" said Dave.

So what's wrong with being different, I asked myself.

bla bla bla. I really can't write. Not like this, not without learning the basics first. Something's missing. I sure do pity the spiders. This shit is difficult.

That's why I just free associated on parrots and didn't try to get deep. Figured that the metaphor is already there so just tease it out a bit.

btw - I didn't think your first one sucked at all. And the second one could have worked but it felt a little forced because you are trying too hard. Based upon other things you have done, you are a damn fine writer.

I second that. Just a little stage fright, that's all... and stage fright is a good thing.

The emphasis now (mainstream comp-rhet) is on multiple drafts and "audience-based prose." (therefore, "peer-review") After straw-polling classes over the years, I found that very few people do "rough drafts" for anything other than English class... where they FORCE them to do it. Good writers re-write naturally... because they've learned through experience that it makes their stuff better.

I have ethical problems with "audience-based prose." I prefer "Truth-based prose." Pan's approach of "teasing out the metaphor" was excellent. What kind of collective relies on coercion to keep it together? What would cause a parrot to mutilate itself?

Van Jones resigns... where the writer mentions Jones "...using a reference to a lower anatomical orifice to describe Republicans." What kind of namby-pamby weak-kneed bullshit is that? Did Jones say "assholes?" Or did he say the "c-word?" ALL Republicans? SOME Republicans? In what context?

Seems like this guy was suppressed for not parroting the dogma... or maybe for parroting the incorrect dogma.

Here's what I wrote, but I didn't include a reference to a scholarly source and I didn't post it on socialgo:

The Parrot Paradigm is the way that bureaucracies maintain discipline by stifling creativity and innovation.

I encountered the Parrot Paradigm when I worked for a short while as a civilian aboard a Navy base. They used different terminology, but the meanings were the same.

"Be an obedient slave" was, "You have to go along to get along."

"Never question anything" was, "Don't rock the boat."

"Help us brutally suppress anyone who does" was, "be a good team player."

And "Your Reward is in Heaven" was made quite explicit when a coworker took me aside, pointed out to me that most of my coworkers belonged to a particular fundamentalist sect, and told me, "You'd have a lot fewer problems at work if you'd accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal savior."

I needed the job, so I tried to keep my mouth shut and maintain a low profile. That lasted about six months until the personnel department violated the confidentiality of my files and gave coworkers information about me that they couldn't have learned any other way, which they used to harrass me. At that point I started fighting back by blowing the whistle on illegal practices I'd witnessed at work. The Navy retaliated by firing me. Three times over the course of the next year. The first two times their legal department advised them that they didn't have just cause to legally terminate my employment, so they rehired me. The third time they decided to let me sue them, which I did, and they ended up spending approximately two million dollars to defend their decision to fire me illegally. They won after three years in federal court when I ran out of energy and gave up. During that time I was mostly representing myself (I tried hiring two different lawyers, but both of them quickly sold me out and sided with the government to preserve their own careers, and had to be fired), while the Navy had four full legal teams plus the services of seventeen different Assistant U.S. Attorneys and their staffs.

The Little Parrot Paradigm enabled the Navy to have a docile workforce by penalizing dissent. Racism and sexism, though ostensibly illegal, were in reality mandatory. Anyone who didn't take part in racist and sexist harassment and discrimination was accused of not fitting in, not being a team player, not getting along with their coworkers, and became a pariah. One coworker followed me when I left work, waited until I'd gotten far enough away from the base that nobody would see us, and them came up and apologized to me for being part of the prevailing corruption. He didn't agree with it and didn't want to do it, but it was what he had to do to keep his job.

This paradigm seems to be common in capitalist countries, particularly in schools that are designed to produce a docile workforce and in the corporate bureaucracies where most people work.

A different paradigm exists in socialist countries and in worker-owned collectives..

"Be an obedient slave" turns into, "Be a responsible citizen/worker."

"Never question anything" becomes, "You're in charge--let everyone know if you think of a way we could do things better."

And "Help us brutally suppress anyone who does" evolves into, "Everyone is entitled to dignity and respect."

The old model is failing. Businesses that enforce the parrot paradigm are going bankrupt. The new model is thriving. Worker-owned cooperatives are more profitable than ever before, even in the midst of a failing economy.
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Waldo, Van Jones never did belong in the White House. Innovation cannot be achieved within a system designed to stifle creativity. I guess you could compare it to an obese diabetic with heart disease who eats greasy fast-food cheeseburgers and drinks lots of Coke and Pepsi with high fructose corn syrup, adding one organic tomato a day to their diet in hopes of becoming healthier.

That isn't meant to discourage you. Many school cafeterias are adding vegetarian alternatives to their usual fare. That allows kids to choose a healthier diet if they wish. By presenting an alternative option, you can enable change. But you WILL meet with resistance from the system.

Funny, a fleeting thought just passed my mind....something about an online radical writing course....unaccredited, expensive, and open to anyone interested who can afford it.... Set a start date for next summer and do some heavy guerrilla marketing from now until then... Do it as a collective, but only those who need the money get paid.... It could even be done as part of RBC through a moderated membership group.... Oh well. I get weird ideas now and then....probably not worth pursuing.....

Got a "group" up now so we can all let this fred sink to the bottom and not bother y'all with my own personal bread-making scam. Will make y'all "moderators" on the "alternative" website... well... except for YOU, MARK... just now... cos you're REALLY weird... even for HERE... but I hope to soon lower the gate for ye so the Wee Spiders can learn from your most prolific writing and editing!

To you Ladies... I believe the "Charlottes" need you the most. From my own anecdotal experience, the female writers are by-far the best at this stage... in my crude male opinion, they need to connect with you Wise Sisters to convince them that their advanced development is not a shame and a drag! PLEASE:

You won't ever be able to make me a mod, Waldo. Even my best friends can't do that--not even on their own websites. But that doesn't mean that I can't be helpful. There's still a senior editor on OEN who posts some of my comments as "anonymous" contributions now and then. Everything I write (unless it specifically states otherwise in big bold capital letters at the top) is way to the left of copyleft. It can be reposted with or without attribution and you don't have to ask for permission. Just help yourself any time. I don't write for money or to make a name for myself, I write to communicate. And that's so weird it makes everything else weird about me seem almost normal in comparison. ;)